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May 09, 2013

12:57 PM | CDC Updates On Novel Coronavirus

# 7253 Yesterday (May 8th) the CDC posted updates to their novel coronavirus webpage, including an updated Q&A overview, and a situation update which includes case definitions, links to a variety of guidance documents, and a brief discussion on what is known about this virus, including its potential for transmission. Some excerpts below, but follow the links to read them in their entirety. Novel Coronavirus […]

11:27 AM | Pregnancy, Influenza, & Bipolar Disorder In Offspring

Photo Credit – CDC # 7252 While we await the next installment in the nCoV and H7N9 story, we’ve a new study that appeared yesterday in JAMA Psychiatry, that links bipolar disorder (BD) to influenza exposure while still in the womb. Some background information on BD from the NIMH, that shows millions of Americans suffer to one degree or another from this disorder. Bipolar Disorder Among Adults Bipolar disorder, sometimes referred to as […]

11:00 AM | Talmudic Question #98

What do you think is the single best criterion for telling an endosymbiont of a eukaryotic cell from an organelle?

10:39 AM | Do health inspectors turn blind eye to ethnic restaurants?

It’s one of those things that has long been rumored but difficult to prove: do health inspectors go easy on ethnic food service places? I was in the little Chinatown portion of Brisbane the other day, with about 40 restaurants … Continue reading →

7:37 AM | Foodborne illness outbreaks from microbial contaminants in spices, 1973-2010

Spices are something people, food service and even manufacturers may pooh-pooh when considering the risks of microbial contamination. Black pepper, white pepper, red pepper, rainbow pepper, curry, anise, fennel, turmeric, broccoli powder and mixtures. Don’t get me started on herbs. … Continue reading →

5:34 AM | YouTube Video on Blastocystis Subtyping

For those who want to venture into Blastocystis subtyping - the easy way - I've recorded and uploaded a video on YouTube fyi.

May 08, 2013

7:10 PM | WHO: Extensive GAR Update On nCoV

# 7251 The World Health Organization’s Global Alert & Response has released an extensive update on the novel coronavirus (which they continue to call nCoV), current as of today (May 8th), but it does not include the 31st case, reported as imported today from the UAE (see France: More Details On Imported nCoV Case). After discussing the latest outbreak in Saudi Arabia, the summary begins with: The reappearance of this virus and the pattern […]

6:30 PM | Atmospheric Conditions Influence Outbreaks of Disease in Europe

A recently published paper in Scientific Reports has found that climate variability in the form of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) has had a significant impact on the occurrence of disease outbreaks in Europe over the past fifty years. Researchers in France and the United Kingdom studied 2,058 outbreaks occurring in 36 countries from 114 infectious [...]

Morand S, Owers KA, Waret-Szkuta A, McIntyre KM & Baylis M (2013). Climate variability and outbreaks of infectious diseases in Europe., Scientific reports, 3 1774. PMID: 23639950

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6:01 PM | Reproducible cell counts in less than 30 seconds

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5:00 PM | Microbial Misadventures: Anthrax, Hippies & Drum Circles

Everyone has their own collecting quirk. I myself collect animal skulls, inconveniently large earrings and unusual stories of infectious disease cases and outbreaks. To each their own, yes? I’ve decided that, instead of stockpiling these stories away in some recess of my brain, I’ll be sharing them online in a new recurring series on Body [...]

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (2010). Gastrointestinal anthrax after an animal-hide drumming event - New Hampshire and Massachusetts, 2009., MMWR. Morbidity and mortality weekly report, 59 (28) 872-7. PMID: 20651643

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4:55 PM | H7N9: ECDC Risk Assessment Unchanged

Heat map – Credit Laidback Al FluTrackers # 7250 As we ping-pong back and forth between emerging viruses today, the ECDC has posted a brief update to their risk assessment (to Europe) of the avian H7N9 virus that has infected at least 130 people in China over the past couple of months. The bottom line is essentially, unless and until this virus becomes able to produce sustained human-to-human transmission, the risk to Europe remains low. […]

3:50 PM | nCoV: WHO Officials To Visit Saudi Hospital

# 7249 From Reuters this morning a story that indicates World Health Organization officials will soon visit the hospital where an outbreak of nCoV(aka MERS) has infected at least 13 people. In a statement by Gregory Hartl, spokesperson for WHO, we learn that one of the areas they will focus on is the hemodialysis unit (see earlier blog Media Reports Blame Saudi nCoV Outbreak On Dialysis Equipment) as playing a potential role in the spread of […]

2:28 PM | A good thing: More and more biology papers showing up in arXiv

Good to see some more papers in microbiology & genomics and related topics going to the preprint server arXiv. If you are interested in population and evolutionary genetics a good place to keep up with papers on this topic in arXiv is Haldane's Sieve. The good folks there in essence make a separate post about each paper of interest and then people can comment there on the papers, since the commenting functions at arXiv are, well, challenged. In areas related to this blog, here are […]

2:02 PM | Germs, for lack of a better word, are good. Germs are right. Germs work. Germs clarify, cut through, and capture, the essence of the evolutionary spirit.

To paraphrase a great movie classic, Wall Street. I want to change focus a bit, from bacteria benefiting mankind by cleaning up our messes and providing electricity, to another great benefit of bacteria; their pliability. It is very easy to manipulate the genetics of bacteria (see Biohacking). This owes to their genome structure and lack [...]

1:04 PM | NPR Shots: The CDC’s Pandemic Preps – Just In Case

A CDC scientist uses a pipette to transfer H7N9 virus into vials for sharing with partner laboratories for public health research purposes. # 7248 From NPR’s Richard Knox this morning - a good look at the advance work being done by the CDC to prepare for the H7N9 virus – just in case it should mutate into a humanized virus. You’ll find remarks from Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of NIAID, along with Daniel Jernigan, Deputy Director of CDC's […]

12:11 PM | WHO WPRO: H7N9 Update

Credit WHO # 7247 Meanwhile, the other emerging virus threat (H7N9) in China continues to simmer, albeit at a lower rate than a week ago, as evidenced by this update from the World Health Organization’s WPRO office. Human Infection with Avian Influenza A(H7N9) as of 8 May 2013 Situation update As of 8 May 2013, a total of 130 cases have been reported (129 from China's National Health and Family Planning Commission, and 1 […]

11:49 AM | France: More Details On Imported nCoV Case

# 7246 Based on details from an AFP report, it appears that France’s first imported coronavirus case returned from a visit to Dubai (spanning Apr. 9th-17th) and was hospitalized on April 23rd in Valenciennes, a town of about 40,000 people in the north of France near the Belgium border. On April 29th, the 65-year-old man was transferred to a hospital in Douai, a distance of about 41 km. Given this patient’s travel history, It’s not […]

10:47 AM | Media Reports Blame Saudi nCoV Outbreak On Dialysis Equipment

# 7245 Via a pair of long, but reasonably decipherable, Arabic news items overnight (h/t Tetano on FluTrackers) we get reports attributing their current `healthcare’ related coronavirus outbreak to contaminated dialysis equipment. If the bulk of these cases can be shown to be due to contaminated hospital equipment, rather than from direct human-to-human transmission, then a lot of people will breathe a little easier. But as we’ve also seen news […]

9:35 AM | France: Imported Case Of nCoV From The UAE

# 7244 Via a brief and less-than-detailed press release from France’s Health Ministry, we learn of an imported case of novel coronavirus infection, courtesy of a traveler returning from the UAE. While we saw an another case originating from the UAE last March (see WHO: Update On NCoV Fatality In Germany), I suspect that no time will be wasted in seeing if this person’s infection is linked – in any possible way – to the outbreak currently […]

3:42 AM | Influenza H5N1 x H1N1 reassortants: ignore the headlines, it’s good science

Those of you with an interest in virology, or perhaps simply sensationalism, have probably seen the recent headlines proclaiming another laboratory-made killer influenza virus. From The Independent: ‘Appalling irresponsibility: Senior scientists attack Chinese researchers for creating new strains of influenza virus’; and from InSing.com: ‘Made-in-China killer flu virus’. It’s unfortunate that the comments of several [...]

3:06 AM | Dumb rules: EU sets out post-horsemeat food standards

EU Health Commissioner, Tonio Borg said May 6, 2013, the European political environment needs to loosen its ties on the agri-food sector, if is to be competitive in the future, while simultaneously creating a farm-to-fork food safety revolution to curb … Continue reading →

2:53 AM | 6 sickened; Salmonella-contaminated blueberries from Georgia in 2010 tracked down by Minn. health types using GTINs and shopper cards

Abstract: In August 2010, the Minnesota Department of Agriculture and Minnesota Department of Health investigated an outbreak of six cases of Salmonella Newport infection occurring in northwestern Minnesota, which identified fresh blueberries as the cause. Initially, traditional traceback methods involving the review … Continue reading →

12:00 AM | Groundhog Day, Alaska Campylobacter-in-raw-milk version

Folks in Alaska must be undergoing their own kind of public health Groundhog Day – where the same day is relived with slight variations. But unlike the Bill Murray movie, no matter how much the health types cajole, persuade, and … Continue reading →

May 07, 2013

11:07 PM | 5 sick from E. coli O157 in Texas; 2 kids critical

The Brazos County Health Department and the Texas Department of State Health Services are investigating five cases of a possible fatal strand of E. coli found in Brazos County residents. The health department confirms that two children, both of whom … Continue reading →

10:26 PM | The Unresolved Mysteries of the Mold in Your House

Today we have another in our series of guest posts by participants in the upcoming meeting on indoor evolution at the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center in June. Rachel Adams is a post-doctoral researcher at the University of California at Berkeley who studies the dispersal of fungal spores into homes. In the early 1940s, the promise of the drug penicillin far exceeded its production. Scientists were on a quest to find a strain of the penicillin producing fungus, Penicillium, that would […]

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